We're Not in the '80s Anymore, Toto: What Hollywood Can Do About HIV Stigma

By Scott McPhersonFrom TheBody.com

June 1, 2013

Scott McPherson

This op-ed originally appeared on Advocate.com.

Since HIV was discovered in 1981, a magical twister hasn't blown us all away. No farmhouses have fallen onto ruby-soled witches. And no one has mastered the art of traveling by bubble. But in the realm of the HIV epidemic, we are certainly not in Kansas anymore. We've reached the colorful land of Oz. Long gone are the stormy days of gray and gloom. We've seen extraordinary advancements in modern medicine that have allowed for those living with HIV to live full, healthy, and happy lives.

But in 2013, you wouldn't know this by looking through the Hollywood lens, where topics and stories have played a pivotal role in the progression of gay culture. As Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese once said, "Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this."

Hollywood has, since the invention of celluloid, played an important role in the advancement of our society and people's ways of thinking. Often films allow us to open our minds and learn new things we may not have once understood or felt comfortable with. They allow us to take that first step down the road of yellow brick. Successful films like Brokeback Mountain or Milk offered the everyday American, who may not have known someone who was gay, a chance to witness the life of an LGBT person and possibly gain a new level of comfort around the subject that would eventually lead to their support for marriage equality.

But when I look back at the short and recent history of films that include HIV and/or AIDS (fact: it's always both) in their plot, I find it impossible to think of a single one that has challenged our way of thinking or pushed our culture forward by bringing light to scenarios or situations that were true to today's way of living for those with HIV. One that reflects the idea that having HIV is now manageable, and daily treatment with today's medications can, and most likely will, reduce your viral load, significantly increasing the quality and length of your life.

More recently we felt distraught when Precious received her diagnosis after being raped by her father, and we even breathed a sigh of relief to learn that Jim Carrey was only pretending to have AIDS in I Love You, Phillip Morris. So with these constant reminders of death and sorrow, why are we surprised so many people fear a simple HIV test? Perhaps it's that no one wants to end up like Ed Harris's character in The Hours or go through what the character Judith did in Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor.

Even now, 32 years after the discovery of AIDS, the incredible documentary, How to Survive a Plague, received an Oscar nomination for its powerful story about AIDS activists and their struggle to get the government's attention. Later this year, we'll see Dallas Buyers Club, set in 1986, which depicts a man's struggle for medications after he receives an AIDS diagnosis with only 30 days to live. Next year, The Normal Heart debuts on HBO and will surely require a tissue as we watch an activist attempt to raise HIV/AIDS awareness during the early 1980s.

So now I beg the important question: Where are the films that show what it's like to have HIV in 2013? That millions of lives have been restored thanks to the scientific advancements made in treatment?

The huge absence of HIV-positive representation is not just limited to film. This is also true in scripted TV. In fact, the last non-reality U.S. television series that included a main character living with HIV (and not dying from it) was Showtime's Queer as Folk -- the finale aired in 2005.

Between the lack of education that plagues our youth and the lack of awareness among so-called "low-risk populations" it's no wonder stigma is the leading perpetrator for a consistent infection rate year after year. If Scorsese's assertion that entertainment reflects how we see the world is correct, then why are we surprised that the world is still so uneducated and ill-informed about the current state of the disease? A large portion of the population still doesn't know the difference between HIV and AIDS, and Hollywood has yet to come to the rescue. In 1989, the peak of the epidemic, 150,000 people were diagnosed with AIDS in the U.S.; a number that has since dropped 80 percent. Who knew?

One would argue there's not enough drama or suspense in a modern-day plot to include HIV, but therein lies the beauty of how easy it should be to include. For example, create a character that is, say, a smart-mouthed ass-kicking chick, that also happens to be HIV positive, and hasn't progressed to AIDS, and isn't seen on their deathbed in the final scene. It boils down to the fact that 1 million people in the U.S. have HIV and the number of films released theatrically in the past three years (documentaries excluded) that have included a character with HIV is, well, one: Judith in Temptation, which tells the world that people with HIV deserved what they got. That certainly doesn't send a positive message to easily influenced moviegoers.

Luckily for stigma, there is a small saving grace in the world of reality television. Reality series (as in real life ... mostly) are the only mainstream medium truly depicting HIV-positive people as they are today: living normal healthy lives, thriving even. Role models like Project Runway All-Stars winner Mondo Guerra and The Voice runner-up Jamar Rogers bring awareness to what it's like to live with and conquer HIV today to viewers across the country. It's a start, but it's not enough. We may be over the rainbow when it comes to actuality, but in Hollywood we're still farm girls stuck in a stormy AIDS-ridden world of gray. Until there is a true spectrum of positive HIV-positive representation across all forms of media, you can be sure that HIV stigma is one thing we won't see fade to black.

Scott McPherson is the founder and vice president of The Stigma Project, a grassroots organization using social media and advertising to reduce the stigma around HIV and AIDS.

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